Kevin Conroy’s Batman Is Utterly Wasted in Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a superhero recreation saddled with an uncommon quantity of luggage. It might be the follow-up to 2015’s much-loved Batman: Arkham Knight, but it surely’s additionally a recreation that’s been topic to quite a few delays and issues over its stay service parts and gameplay selections. It additionally occurs to be the ultimate DC recreation that includes the voice of Kevin Conroy as Batman. Now that the sport is lastly out within the wild, one factor has change into abundantly clear This isn’t the sendoff Rocksteady’s Darkish Knight deserved. 

Why does Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League miss the mark the place Batman is anxious? Let’s take a deep dive into the place the sport goes so flawed, however watch out for full spoilers forward for the brand new Suicide Squad recreation!

Preventing the Darkish Knight

First off, to handle the bat-elephant within the room – they killed Kevin Conroy’s Batman off right here, and so they do it in a fairly lame method. We’re going to dig into that in a second, however first let’s discuss in regards to the missed alternative of the gameplay itself.

A part of the enchantment with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is that it promised to flip the script the place Batman is anxious. Rocksteady’s earlier DC video games put gamers squarely in Batman’s armored sneakers. As Batman, we soared by way of the skies of Gotham Metropolis, stalked criminals throughout alleyways and rooftops and unleashed Batman’s full arsenal of devices and weapons. By no means earlier than has a recreation collection been so profitable in making gamers really feel just like the Darkish Knight himself. 

In Suicide Squad, abruptly the script is flipped. We’re enjoying because the criminals, and Batman is the enemy. That opens up lots of potential for the sport’s inevitable Batman boss battle. What’s it wish to be on the receiving finish of the Caped Crusader’s wrath? What’s it wish to stumble by way of the darkness, understanding that each ledge or perch is perhaps hiding a crazed vigilante ready to kick your face in?

In a greater recreation, the Batman boss battle would have performed out like a survival horror mission. It must be terrifying going up towards this deranged billionaire and his lethal toys. Superman could also be invulnerable, however at the least he gives a goal to shoot at. Batman is the enemy that may’t be seen till he’s able to carry the ache.

The sport’s two Batman encounters are nothing greater than tedious, poorly lit impediment programs.

However quite than being a nerve-wracking lesson in what it’s wish to be Batman’s prey, the sport’s two Batman encounters are nothing greater than tedious, poorly lit impediment programs. When it comes time for the precise Batman boss battle, you aren’t preventing the Darkish Knight a lot as grappling with the results of Scarecrow’s worry toxin. This face-off has you stumble by way of the darkness and activate a collection of buttons to fabricate extra worry toxin. Alongside the best way, you shoot at a unending collection of Bat-like wraiths and dodge Batman’s explosive gel. It’s repetitive, uninteresting and something however the thrilling motion sequence we might have anticipated. 

This boss battle does lastly culminate in an precise battle, however hardly one worthy of the Darkish Knight. The Squad merely jumps and shoots at an outsized Batman monster in a scene that appears like a riff on one of many nightmare sequences from the unique Arkham Asylum. After which it’s throughout. By no means does the sport truly faucet into the fun of preventing Batman. By no means does it channel the worry of preventing the final word ninja warrior in his prime factor.

After all, squandering the chance for an excellent Batman boss battle is one factor, however the true downside begins after the battle is over. It’s how the sport provides Rocksteady’s Batman his remaining sendoff that issues actually go flawed for Suicide Squad.   

The Unhappy Finish of the Arkham Saga

By no means let or not it’s mentioned that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League doesn’t stay as much as its title. You do certainly kill the Justice League all through the sport, selecting off Earth’s best superhero defenders one after the other earlier than in the end confronting Brainiac. Even the mighty Batman is introduced down by Harley Quinn and her staff. Harley accomplishes what her puddin’ by no means did, taking pictures Bats level clean within the head and luring Superman into the open. 

It’s a surprisingly ignominious finish for a personality as beloved as Batman. And possibly that was the entire level. We are able to nearly respect Suicide Squad slicing by way of the mystique and killing off Batman in such an unceremonious trend.

However the issue is that this isn’t simply any model of Batman; it’s the Batman from Rocksteady’s Arkham video games. Suicide Squad is technically a sequel to 2015’s Arkham Knight. The sport consists of sufficient references to the ending of Arkham Knight, the dying of Poison Ivy and the truth that Batman’s secret identification is understood to the world at giant to verify the connection.

It is a model of the character followers have bonded with over the course of a number of lengthy adventures. The Arkham trilogy showcases three of the worst nights of Batman’s lengthy profession, nights the place he pushes himself to his bodily and psychological limits with a purpose to save his metropolis. Significantly in Arkham Knight, Batman is damaged all the way down to his core and emerges the opposite facet stronger and extra resilient than ever. For some, these video games provide the definitive incarnation of Batman.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League exhibits no regard for the legacy of the Arkham video games. It might be one factor if the sport had been set in its personal, self-contained universe. Then, it is perhaps simpler to understand the black humor within the concept of Batman being gunned down like a typical felony. However the recreation goes out of its method to set up its place within the Arkham canon. It transforms that Batman right into a brainwashed killer, cheapening the reminiscence of a hero who goes out of his means within the Arkham video games to by no means take a life, even Joker’s. This isn’t the ending Rocksteady’s Batman deserved.

It’s definitely not the follow-up we hoped for or anticipated in gentle of Arkham Knight’s ambiguous ending. That recreation concludes with Batman activating the Knightfall protocols and destroying his life as Bruce Wayne. What turns into of him after that time? Does he attempt to discover happiness in anonymity, like Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne in The Darkish Knight Rises? Does he commit himself absolutely to his warfare on crime, a la the Batman of The Darkish Knight Returns? And the way do the assorted members of the Bat-family soldier on with out their chief?

There’s much more story that might have been instructed with this model of the Batman character. However Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League settles for essentially the most boring reply. It seems that Batman continues to be Batman, even after the whole lot that occurred in Arkham Knight. He’s simply hanging out with the Justice League till he turns into a pawn of Brainiac. The hero avid gamers have spent dozens, if not tons of, of hours enjoying as is handled as little greater than a disposable plot gadget. All of the potential left on the desk with Arkham Knight is wasted for the sake of an affordable snigger.

All of the potential left on the desk with Arkham Knight is wasted for the sake of an affordable snigger.

To be truthful, there’s at all times an opportunity Rocksteady isn’t fairly achieved with Batman. As definitive as his dying scene appears to be, the Batman comics have definitely discovered outlandish methods of bringing useless characters again into the fold. There’s additionally the truth that the sport dabbles within the DC multiverse by the tip, providing gamers the chance to search out 12 extra variations of Brainiac through DLC campaigns. If a model of Joker is being introduced in as a playable character, who’s to say Batman gained’t return as nicely? However will or not it’s the identical Batman? And can he nonetheless be voiced by Kevin Conroy? If not, does Batman’s return even matter?

The silver lining right here is that whereas Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a poor sendoff for Rocksteady’s Batman, at the least it isn’t Conroy’s remaining outing because the Darkish Knight. IGN has realized that Conroy will reprise his Batman: The Animated Sequence function within the animated film Justice League: Disaster on Infinite Earths, Half 3. With a bit of luck, that film may give Conroy’s Batman the sendoff he deserves. Arkham followers aren’t so fortunate, sadly.  

For extra on the sport, take a look at IGN’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League evaluate in progress.

Jesse is a mild-mannered employees author for IGN. Enable him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.